Angry teachers, parents protest layoff of 49 Pontiac School District employees WITH VIDEO

Angry teachers, students and parents gathered Friday outside of Owen Elementary School in Pontiac to protest the layoffs of 49 Pontiac School District employees.

"The message to the community is, 'We want your students to come here, but they're gonna be suffering because they'll be in a crowded classroom,'" Pontiac Education Association President Aimee McKeever said during the protest.

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"They're gonna have teachers who aren't gonna get any prep time so they can prepare lessons appropriately. They're not gonna have clean buildings to come to, because we've laid just about everybody off.

"It's a pretty sad day (when) our education is not very important."

The layoffs were announced earlier this month and went into effect Friday. The school district said the cuts will result in $1.2 million in savings during the next 45 days -- part of a state-required plan to eliminate a $24.5 million deficit.

McKeever said 37 teachers were laid off Friday, meaning classrooms will have up to 40 students in them for the remainder of the year. Music and art classes have been eliminated.

"(The school district's) excuse is they do what they were told," McKeever said.

"Past superintendents have either stolen from the district, mismanaged funds, overpaid people, paid people twice -- it's in the forensic audit that was published. It's unacceptable that it's going to come on the backs of the teachers, the students and the parents here, and we're going to be put up with having to cover the costs."

Rick Trainor, secretary treasurer for the Michigan Education Association, said part of the blame goes to Lansing.

"In addition to all the things that have happened in Pontiac, and things that are specific to the district, this also is aggravated by the billion dollars in the school aid fund that was taken out by Lansing to be sent to other uses," Trainor said.

"It was not money saved for taxpayers. They simply spent it somewhere else. This is happening to children in Pontiac, in part, because of what people in Lansing did, stealing money from the school aid fund. This is the result of taking money that was there for schools and sending it elsewhere."

Lisa Swansey, acting president for the school district's teacher assistants, said six assistants have been laid off and six more are being displaced.

"These cuts are catastrophic," Swansey said.

"This just doesn't make any sense. What's another six weeks? I just don't see how they couldn't (wait until the end of the school year to put the layoffs in effect). I really don't."